As most of us have learned in Science 101, chlorophyll is the pigment found in all green plants and is what facilitates the process of converting sunlight into energy. What is less common knowledge is that chlorophyll has many other benefits to us as humans, one of them being as a natural deodorant.

It’s first use for this purpose started in the 1950’s when it was used to control odor from open wounds. Because of its deodorizing property, it was eventually given orally to colostomy patients to control fecal odor.

In 1957, doctor by the name of Franklin Howard Wescott was looking for a cure to anemia and started giving his patients chlorophyll. He noticed that after taking the chlorophyll, the urine smell of the patients was greatly decreased. This led him to believe that chlorophyll taken internally could reduce breath and body odor.

Using test subjects and an osmoscope, he was able to conclude that body odor was reduced by half or completely, up to 18 hours after bathing. An additional test was conducted using onion juice with similar results for breath odor.

Dr. Wescott’s final conclusions were that between 15-200mg of chlorophyll taken internally was sufficient enough of a quantity to reduce or eliminate breath and body odor for a period of up to 36 hours without any impairments in body function.

He would eventually go on to patent several chlorophyll and chlorophyll derivatives for odor control purposes. One of them being sodium copper chlorophyllin.